Diablo 2: The Shadow of Chaos
by Zephiro
Summary: 3 Adventurers go in a journey where many things unfold: Battles, Love, and Death alike come to place when a new danger arises. The Shadow of Chaos has come.
1. Prologue: The Three

It had been 12 years since the Dark Wanderer passed through the grand village of Lut Golein, searching for the sacred Tomb of Tal Rasha. About 6months after the fateful day when monsters invaded the town, Lut Golein heard news that the powerful group of warriors who were chasing the wanderer killed Mephisto, Lord of Hatred; Diablo, Lord of Terror; and the Great Baal, Lord of Destruction. The town was really happy with the news, and they lay down all precautions, and once again became a port with travelers coming in and out, traders and merchants alike came in the ships and across the deserts to come to the famous trading port.  
Today was one of these days; life in Lut Golein had its busy afternoon buzz. The central "stadium", as it was called, had trading tents and carpets spread all over. People hung there, gossiping, buying, and selling alike. Gold spun from hand-to-hand, and everyone seemed quite happy with how business and life were going altogether.  
Three people seemed quite discontent though. Lythna; the young merchant daughter of the king, Jerhyn, was quite disappointed that everyday she woke up to the same make-and-trade life routine. Beside her, Kyro, a young abandoned boy who lived off making magic tricks, was getting tired of having to perform tricks to get a low budget of money, and always use all of his money to find shelter and food. The third person was Neftón, the son of one of the city guards. He had always dreamt on becoming a warrior, but reminded by his father, warrior now a-days was as useless a job as it could be.

Interesting enough, the three teenagers were together. The three of them were sitting on Kyro's Mat. Kyro was performing his usual magic tricks, entertaining the other two.

"How do you do that?" Lythna asked, intrigued by the tricks. The one he had just done was to make a card turn into a gold coin.

"Magic." Kyro mocked. Noticing that Lythna's face became cross at the moment, but lightened into a smirk right after.

"Who are you?" Neftón asked, intrigued at how the teenager could mix both aspects of tricks with magic. He was sure the kid had some knowledge of the magic arts, or else he wouldn't be able to perform half of these tricks.

"Kyro." The young street kid said, grinning "I know that you, girl, you're the king's daughter, Lythna, and you, you're...who are you?" He said, as a sweat drop slipped down his brow. He knew Lythna from sight but had never expected to talk to her. He had already seen that kid before, but he knew nothing of him.

"I'm Neftón, son of Nigel." The warrior-like teenager said, smiling slightly. He knew his father was well known, and at the mention of the name, Kyro's eyebrows had been raised.

The three smiled and kept talking, until dark clouds had suddenly covered the sunny desert, and cold raindrops, fell like thousands of heavy thick needles. They hit the people in the streets, who quickly dismounted their tents and ran to get cover. Kyro rolled up his mat and magic materials and smile sheepishly at his two new friends.

"Come on, I know a place you two will find quite interesting, we can keep talking there." Kyro said, a sly grin was forming in his lips. He turned around and ran down the street, water splashing as his footsteps hit puddles of water.

The other two teenagers ran at his back, having to be cautious not to slip and fall. They ran down a dark alley, and into a small locked tavern, through its' open window. Inside, they ran up a spiral staircase and found themselves on the top of the building. The building top had a canvas sheet tied to some poles, holding it over the rooftop.

Kyro sat down at the edge of the building, signaling for his two friends to do so too. Both of them sat beside him, either one on one side. Their eyes widened in awe, as they noticed that they could see the whole city of Lut Golein from there, its' lights shining everywhere, because of the cloudy afternoon, and quick falling nightfall. The three teenagers sat there, speechless for a long, watching the city, in a rare beauty that not every person had the pleasure of watching.

It seemed that forever had passed when Lythna finally got up. She started to the exit, with a sad look on her face.

"Why are you leaving?" Neftón and Kyro asked together. She just shook her head and left, without one single word. Kyro was quite frustrated at this, but Neftón suddenly pointed something out.

"She's the princess, and her father is probably worried sick. The guards probably said she was with us when she disappeared in a series of alleyways. She went because she didn't want to get us into trouble; she knew her father wouldn't forgive us even if she assured him that we did her no harm. Poor Lythna, being a princess must really be a hard task.

"Well, it's better then being an abandoned kid who had to do tricks with cards and dice to get a terrible budget, and almost not be able to survive without wasting all his money." Kyro whipped back, quite stressed at the fact that Neftón thought that Lythna could leave them without even saying "good-bye".

"Well, at least you're free to do what you want. Nadia has to obey her father, or else he'll lock her in the palace, and not let her explore the town without guards beside her. I'm still not as free as you, because my father keeps a watchful eye on me, but he gives me much more liberty then King Jerhyn gives the Princess." Neftón said, calmly. He sighed and then looked at Kyro "I really have to get going too, it's dark and my mother will be worried if I'm not home by dinner time. Good-bye Magic Kyro."

"Good-bye Warrior Neftón." Kyro said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He stood up and followed Neftón outside the building, where they split paths. Kyro went to the small inn where he usually slept in, and Neftón went to his house, on the portside of the large city.

It had been a good day, but Kyro was not sleepy. He decided to go about the city, and think of life...


	2. Creeping Along

Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo in anyway. I designed this plotline though and some characters are originally mine. This fan-fic is both © to Blizzard Entertainment as to Me. Thank you for your cooperation.

A Thanks to all who took their time to read and review (R&R) – KatsGoMoo ) especially. And sorry for spelling "Lut Gholein" wrong,I knew something was wrong but I really had no idea what. Thanks again!

Zephiro 

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"You..." As Kyro walked through the dark alleyways he heard a muffled sort of voice, he turned around quickly in the direction of where it had come "What are you? Who – AHHHHHHHH!" The scream reverberated throughout the street. Kyro quickly set off in what seemed a hurried pace to find out what was happening – somehow the voice sounded oddly familiar.

"Grrraaa..." A low growl echoed down the walls as Kyro turned a sharp corner – what he saw made the blood leave his face. He stopped dead. There was a body sprawled on the ground...a bloody puddle streaking from what seemed to be the person's chest. Over the person there was what looked like a 10 feet tall black dog. The "dog" had many patches of fur missing and was standing on its' hind legs, it was hunched over and seemed to be leaning dangerously close to the wounded...or dead person.

"Stop it!" Kyro didn't know what made him do it, but he felt as though he was burning with adrenaline traveling fast in his veins. "You...you can't hurt that person."

As the beast turned around Kyro's mouth opened in a silent scream, the thing's face was grotesque. Its' face was rid of any fur at all, and it had no skin either...he had what looked like rotten, dark-colored flesh. Its' eyes were an intense yellow, and it's pupils were red slits that at once demonstrated that the beast, whatever it was, was _vicious._ But what caught Kyro's eyes the most was the thing's nose and mouth.

The thing's nose was what looked like a stump of an arm. It was the size of a baby's hand, but it looked like the hand had gotten crooked – and it was completely uneven. The thing's nose, if that could be called a nose, was a dark black color, but it was like it had been chipped several hundred times, and something yellow and slimy was leaking down slowly from the center of it. The creature's mouth, was if possible, even uglier. It had no lips, just many strange fangs protruding forward from the thing's "face". The ugly little teeth were yellow and broken in some places, as though they had been decaying for ages. Then, the worst was that there was something purple and round sticking out of the hole that was surrounded by fangs. The thing was shaped like a cone, but as it reached the end it held a small hole and slimy saliva dripped from that.

Then Kyro saw _him, _the person who the creature seemed to have grabbed was none other then Nigel, Neftón's father. Kyro's face, already drained from color became even paler, if that could be considered possible. He noticed that Neftón's father was still breathing, small puffs in his chest proved that, but Nigel had what looked like a vacuum in his chest, and blood was spurting out freely.

Kyro suddenly took notice that the creature was moving towards him. He faced the horrible creature with one though in his mind. _"Grab your friend's father and run as if hell was after you – 'cause this sure is worse then hell, Kyro."_ Kyro grabbed the nearest rock on the ground and chucked it at the beast's face. The ugly beast seemed to wince but looked much more keen to grab and eat succulent Kyro.

Kyro ran at the thing head first, it worked; the creature had been caught by surprise and didn't know what to do. Kyro feinted an attack but swiftly rolled under the creature and hurried to aid Neftón's father to get out of there. _"Come on now, good guard, get a hold of yourself and run."_ His thoughts swiveled through his mind as he tried to pull Nigel to his feet, but now noticed that Nigel had fainted. He tried dragging Nigel desperately, but knew that the creature would reach him far before he could get to aid.

Especially now, the creature didn't seem very happy. If it had any sympathy toward Kyro, it had now vanished. The creature was charging at him in full speed, growling low and making weird hiccupping noises. It seemed that Kyro had pissed it off by trying to deny it a good dinner, maybe even a double-dose if it could catch him.

"_Now, now, good warrior, you better get a hang on yourself or else we'll be this beast's 'Chef's special plate' for the night. And I'm betting that the chef will be much happier if his guest of honor has a better dish then dirty us, oh bloody hell, he'd never like us, but from the look in his face he seems more then willing to try new stuff. I've always hated people who made me try new stuff, I don't go with unsown food. I should teach this thing a lesson in manners after we manage to get out of here. Now help me out mate, dragging you along will be as useful as making that very ugly, correction, horrendous thing's appetite grow. C'mon now, slow and easy will do it. Wait, not slow and easy, the quicker the better, or we'll be "A La Carte" tomorrow." _Kyro seemed to be getting very nervous not managing to wake Nigel up.

On what seemed to be moments away from a not very appreciated death Nigel's eyes flickered open.

"Huh? Who are you? Where's that stranger? Where's my son?" Nigel muttered slowly. But before he could say anything else, Kyro launched in.

"Mr. Nigel, I know you'd like to dine with the stranger, but he kind of got mad with me, and now he's running after us, trust me, having a10 foot tall slimy thing coming after us might sound appealing to you, but I don't have a fetish for that thing. Now, if you don't mind, could you please get up, and run for the sake of your life?" Kyro's explanation made Nigel's head spin around at the oncoming beast. He didn't have second thoughts about what he saw. He jumped to his feet, looked at Kyro and uttered only one word

"RUN!" This seemed to make Kyro and Nigel decide to dash across the alleyways in what seemed to be an impossible-for-a-human 30 miles per hour. They arrived at a small tavern where people suddenly looked at Mr. Nigel and gasped, seeing he was completely out of shape, and had a very interesting wound right into his chest. People started gaping at him like idiots but Kyro interrupted the awkward silence

"Now, I know all of you would like a battle scar as beautiful and honorable as Mr. Nigel, over here, but I know before you start stabbing yourselves, you might want to call a Medic to see to him?"

Kyro's remark had the wished effect, in 5 minutes a doctor and an escort of several guards had come to aid Nigel and ask what had took place. With the help of Kyro, they managed to narrate what had happened. The guards looked a bit uncomfortable at the description of the beast by Kyro – who was quickly confirmed by Nigel, but they didn't seem to be very keen of believing what a wounded man and a street rat were telling them.

"Now, I'm sure you were in deep despair and running very fast, so I think you two might've just not seen what an ordinary criminal looked like and-..." But Kyro, who was fuming, interrupted the senior guard

"You don't believe us because you weren't there, you ungrateful piece of s-..." But Kyro had stopped when Nigel had laid a hand on his shoulder

"This kid and I," started Nigel, with raised eyebrows "are very tired and need to rest our heads a bit. We're both still in shock," Kyro had opened his mouth to protest, but Nigel had squeezed his shoulder so tightly that he closed it shut at once "in shock of these events. Please leave us to be interrogated more thoroughly tomorrow, Gray."

The senior guard seemed very proud of himself of having a veteran warrior-guard speaking to him as an equal. He puffed his chest importantly, bowed, and trotted away, leaving the doctor treating to Nigel's wound as Kyro stared at him, unbelieving.

"Don't flatter that guard too much, or he'll end up exploding, he kind of strained all his muscles to puff out his chest." Kyro jeered. Nigel laughed at the comment and shook his head.

"Now, I must know, what if your name, kid?" Nigel asked, curiosity shining in his eyes.

"Kyro at your service, sir. Can I get you a cup of water, sir? Can I lick your sandals clean, sir? Will you let me touch your robe, sir?" He mocked, making a perfect imitation of the guards when they arrived.

But as Kyro did that, the silhouette of someone running towards them was unmistakable. Kyro looked at the person and immediately recognized Neftón. Neftón blinked at the sight of Kyro then turned to his father.

"Dad...the Levlin were just found...dead in their cabins." He panted. His father though, had bolted upright at once, his eyes wide with shock.

"Are you sure?" He stammered, but at that same moment a low growl filled the air, and the ground trembled with footsteps coming towards the tavern. All eyes turned and froze with horror at the sight of the beasts...not one...there were at least a dozen of them walking towards the filled tavern.

"Holy shit." Kyro and Neftón muttered together.


End file.
